Kinton I found was not my thing and preferred Kenzo. Even my friend who loves ramen and ate at a bunch of ramen joints in Van didn't like Kinton.

Sansotei will give it a whirl, since it's down the street from my office.

It was my first time going to Kenzo, and it will be my last.
I ordered the Sapporo miso ramen...wasn't my ideal choice in the first place because they "sold out" Tonkotsu and Tonkotsu miso ramen. When the order came in that dinky little bowl, I was shocked. The other table who ordered the spicy side of the menu had a MUCH bigger bowl. The pork was dry and small, the noodles were like spaghetti...for the price that I pay for, I rather go to Kinton.
Seriously, $9.75 for the Sapporo miso ramen...and the contents inside it aren't THAT MUCH DIFFERENT to their $6.50 ones. Why should I pay THAT much for THAT little? If I were forced to go to Kenzo's again, I would just get their bare minimum $6.50 bowls.
And really? $8 FOR GYOZA? $8!?

Kinton, on the other hand, was great for my first visit. The second visit, not really. They seem to have adjusted their soup base formula a bit so its less salty.
But the portions did not disappoint me when compared to Kenzo's. They're both priced at the same $9-10 a bowl, it's a no brainer that I would prefer Kinton =/

I will try Sansotei on Friday, I just hope that they aren't closed by the time I'm done class

If you didn't like the spaghetti noodles at Kenzo, you won't like them at Sansotei either.

Originally Posted by 1337rice

It was my first time going to Kenzo, and it will be my last.
I ordered the Sapporo miso ramen...wasn't my ideal choice in the first place because they "sold out" Tonkotsu and Tonkotsu miso ramen. When the order came in that dinky little bowl, I was shocked. The other table who ordered the spicy side of the menu had a MUCH bigger bowl. The pork was dry and small, the noodles were like spaghetti...for the price that I pay for, I rather go to Kinton.
Seriously, $9.75 for the Sapporo miso ramen...and the contents inside it aren't THAT MUCH DIFFERENT to their $6.50 ones. Why should I pay THAT much for THAT little? If I were forced to go to Kenzo's again, I would just get their bare minimum $6.50 bowls.
And really? $8 FOR GYOZA? $8!?

Kinton, on the other hand, was great for my first visit. The second visit, not really. They seem to have adjusted their soup base formula a bit so its less salty.
But the portions did not disappoint me when compared to Kenzo's. They're both priced at the same $9-10 a bowl, it's a no brainer that I would prefer Kinton =/

I will try Sansotei on Friday, I just hope that they aren't closed by the time I'm done class

[QUOTE=iridium001;15450843
I was slightly irked by it, could they have not anticipated and made a little more broth? That's 2 hours of revenue lost (they close at 10pm btw.)
[/QUOTE]

It takes a long time to make a broth, its not something you just whip up a small batch of. Its a new restaurant, it takes time to figure out how busy you are going to be. Kinton ran out of soup quite a few times at the start as well.

i'm gonna have to try either kinton or sansotei next week.
haven't had an authentic bowl of japa ramen in a long long time.

Just got in and ordered the tonkotsu ramen with a kirin beer. Will let you know...I'm just a bit surprised how there's a line up when a couple weeks ago there was no line up on the street. Passer-bys are wondering what's up with the line though...even Kinton didn't have a line despite waiting for like 20 minutes.

Just got in and ordered the tonkotsu ramen with a kirin beer. Will let you know...I'm just a bit surprised how there's a line up when a couple weeks ago there was no line up on the street. Passer-bys are wondering what's up with the line though...even Kinton didn't have a line despite waiting for like 20 minutes.

^
not sure if that's really how you're supposed to eat it or they're just being pure anal in the movie(?) loll Ken-chan

anyways...verdict...

So tonkotsu ramen with a bottle of Kirin beer. Before tips, you're looking at $17 something ish, which I guess, is a pretty common price for ramen and beer nowadays.
Anyways, overboost said that I wouldn't like it because I said I didn't like the spaghetti noodles.
Let me rephrase what I meant really...Kenzo's noodles, were literally as soft as spaghetti/instant noodles, so I would just say that...it's spaghetti/instant noodles. As simple as that.

Sansotei, they used the thin and straight noodles (yes, like Kenzo's). Noodles were FIRM, just the way I like it.
The pork, even though it's not a huge slab across the bowl like Kinton, portion was enough while the balance between the meat and the fat was perfect. Tastes great too!
Soup was not salty, showed just "a bit" of thickness just to prove that it's really tonkotsu soup. Some users have complained that the soup wasn't hot enough, I find it to be just fine. Wouldn't kill if it was hotter though
F*** yeah, $9.25 and you get a WHOLE SOFT BOILED EGG. DO YOU SEE THIS KENZO? ONE WHOLE EGG...NOT HALF
I do wish that they didn't use black fungus (just my personal dislike), but I still ate it all and finished the whole bowl (Do they have Sansotei bowler? )

The wait...well...it was a Friday, at 12:30pm. Got in about 15 minutes because I went alone.
The place is probably about 1/2 the size of Kinton, the mirrors made the place look bigger that I thought it was (looking out from the window).

Would I go again? Yeah I will. I want to try their chilled ramen since the price doesn't look too shabby.
Would I prefer this over Kinton? It depends on my mood...they're both great places, but not to the point where I would prefer one over the other. Yet.

1337rice: A co-worker and I were actually there the Friday as well. We probably left right around the time you got in. Looks like you were sitting at the booth (2 girls were sitting there when we were there).

If you just miss the first seating (opens at 11), it'll take a bit longer to get a seat since 1st cover always takes the longest before service and customers start rotating more efficiently.

I had the tonkotsu as well, as did my co-worker but with extra noodles. I haven't tried Kinton so can't really compare, but I pretty much agree with your review. I wished they had the 'curly' noodles instead of the straight spaghetti kind.

Extra noodles literally double the size of the noodles so make sure you're hungry if you order. My co-worker who can generally eat alot even had difficulty near the end, more so because the noodles were pretty firm. All in all, a solid place that put together a cohesive dish, but not something that I'll be craving for consistently.

We went to Sansotei around 5:45pm last Friday and there was already a line about 10 people deep. We've tried Kinton (no real complaints) and Momofuku (highly overrated and we were not expecting much from this outpost) and both agreed that Sansotei is the best one we've had (ordered the Tonkotsu and Tonkotsu Shoyu). The portions are smaller (2 slivers of pork belly) and less noodles than the others but the soup and noodle texture were excellent. We decided to add extra pork belly and noodles for one of the bowls and it was more than enough for a dinner portion. The Zangi (deep fried chicken cutlets) at $4.50 are a little overpriced but we wanted to try it and probably wouldn't order them again and just stick to ramen.